News

The University of Miami focuses its medical might on the Zika virus through research, treatment and education.

Mosquito-borne transmission of the Zika virus appeared in South Florida just recently, but at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, forward-thinking researchers and clinicians had begun preparing for its arrival a year ago.

That’s when David Watkins, Ph.D., vice chair for research in the Department of Pathology who researches diseases in Latin America where the infections were reaching epidemic proportions, first sounded the alarm about the potential consequences in South Florida.

He was correct to be concerned: There are now 42 confirmed locally acquired infections; and the first one in Pinellas County, on Florida’s west coast, was just confirmed.

Dr. Sylvia Daunert received the honorary title of Excelentísima Sra. Dra., Spain (top honorary title in Spain) in June, 2016. She was also honored at a ceremony were she was inducted as Academic D’Honor at the Reial Acadèmia de Farmàcia de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, on June 28, 2016. It should be noted that she is one out of only three and the only woman Academic D’Honor in the history of the Reial Acadèmia de Farmàcia de Catalunya. During her Induction Ceremony into the Reial Academia de Farmacia de Catlaunya, she presented a seminar “Bionanotechnology-Based Enabling Technologies in Science and Translational Medicine.” In addition, Dr. Daunert was officially appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, a consortium of all the Research Institutes of Catalunya.